Should you contribute open data to OpenStreetMap?
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Re: Should you contribute open data to OpenStreetMap?
#2> They employ nobody in the OSM community.
I imagine many of the employees that do the work mentioned in the article would consider themselves part of the OSM community.
Re: Should you contribute open data to OpenStreetMap?
#3> They employ nobody in the OSM community. I imagine many of the employees that do the work mentioned in the article would consider themselves part of the OSM community.
I suspect they are suggesting a difference between working to contribute as part of the community, versus being solely to further their company's product.
Re: Should you contribute open data to OpenStreetMap?
#4> They employ nobody in the OSM community. I imagine many of the employees that do the work mentioned in the article would consider themselves part of the OSM community.
I was hoping they'd include a comment describing what they mean when they talk about employing someone in the OSM community (and how they'd know).
Re: Should you contribute open data to OpenStreetMap?
#5No, because you shouldn't do work for giant tech companies for free.
Re: Should you contribute open data to OpenStreetMap?
#6At this point, I don't really consider OSM an OSS project, but an infrastructure.
It has small value for everyone, but all combined usage, it has immense economical value for the society. All alone, it's not really useful to end-users, but it can help a lot of businesses that couldn't exist before it.
Maps are already considered infrastructure, since they are already made by governments!
The only missing part to say OSM is an infrastructure, is for governments to actually contribute to it.
Re: Should you contribute open data to OpenStreetMap?
#7If all open source software had new license terms tomorrow that said "no commercial use unless you pay me a license fee", they'd just stop using open source. Using it is a business calculation. If you don't get support and you have to pay for it, you might as well pay for proprietary software that you can get support from.
And maybe that's fine! Maybe we shouldn't let companies use the software at all. But that would have ecosystem-shaking results as the costs are passed down to consumers and fewer engineers are employed. At this point, the whole world is dependent on OSS.
Open Source does not exist for people to get paid. If it did, it'd be the worst software gig in the world, by pay anyway :) To ask for money just because somebody else is getting money and you're not is simply envy and greed. Either ask for the money up front before you release the thing, or don't worry about what other people are getting paid.
Re: Should you contribute open data to OpenStreetMap?
#8I've enjoyed Google Maps for many years and never paid for it. Apple MapKit appears to be free. I improve the experience for others when I help improve the maps and in turn my experience is improved by the contributions of others. It's costs Google and Apple money to provide the infrastructure for this, which they obtain in various ways such as advertising. It doesn't bother me if someone wants to advertise their store on a map I helped create. In fact, even that improves the amount of information I have about a place.
My answer to the title question is a strong "yes" in this case and I consider it akin to a grocery store putting up signs saying "Please help us keep costs down and pass the savings along to you by returning your cart to the cart stand." Giant mega corp Walmart does this if memory serves.
I like that humanity has built such an amazing thing as maps and like it when people return their shopping carts.
Re: Should you contribute open data to OpenStreetMap?
#9I contribute to OSM because I want to make alternatives to Google Maps like OsmAnd or Organicmaps more useful. That big players also use open data does not invalidate my reasons to contribute.
Re: Should you contribute open data to OpenStreetMap?
#10I’m curious to know if the companies that use OSM actually contribute back? Like fixing all the wrong/malicious data.